Day 273: The Turtles Visit Middle Earth

In my last post I mentioned, briefly, my love of Middle-earth and everything it encompasses. Today I'd like to expand a bit on that.

The reason it's been on my mind lately is that my wife, after reading The Hobbit several times in the past made up her mind to finally finish The Lord of the Rings. She's tried before, but never got past The Fellowship of the Ring, and as much of a fan as I am I can totally understand. Tolkien's writing is not everyone's cup of tea; he's very descriptive and his love of lengthy discussions far outweighs the amount of action in the story. But we both love Peter Jackson's film adaptations and the recent trailers for part one of The Hobbit have us very excited to see Martin Freeman as a young Bilbo. So in anticipation of re-entering the epic film version of Middle-earth she decided to finally finish the series, and she did complain about some parts being boring and Tolkien's uncanny ability to kill momentum but overall she really enjoyed it.

As for me? I love it all. The councils, the walking, the endless discussions of old legends, the songs (especially the songs!); all those things that make the books difficult or boring for most people are the things I love. I wasn't always this way, though. My love of Middle-earth is one that has been growing since I first read The Hobbit sometime around 4th Grade. Tolkien's writing is sometimes a bit weighty, especially for a child, but The Hobbit is much more accessible and I've always read things at a higher level than my age. I enjoyed it even if I didn't understand it all and then I moved on to The Lord of the Rings since I had them all in a convenient box set my aunt had given me.

At first I was really only interested in the story. There was so much needless trudging through forests and across plains and talking and singing (those fucking songs!). I remember distinctly giving up on the songs early on and just skipping over them when I first read the books. Or how about Tom Bombadil? What about that guy?

If you've read the books or were a big fan of the movies you likely know Tom Bombadil. Purists crucified Peter Jackson for his omission of the character, while other people were so happy to not have to listen to one of his stupid songs. Personally when I first read the books I hated Tom Bombadil, but now I love that guy! He's such a great character, but if you look at the story objectively he isn't really necessary and I think Peter Jackson did the right thing in leaving him out. I think I'll include a bit of him, though, as this is my blog.

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!

Ring a dong! hop along! Fal lal the willow!

Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!

Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow,

Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.

None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the master:

His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.

Over time I continued to revisit the books and I began to get drawn more into the world rather than just the events of the story. I started to wonder about the Elves and where Sauron came from and all those things fantasy nerds wonder about. I started reading the songs and paying more attention to the smaller, seemingly insignificant details. Eventually I read The Silmarillion which was the most amazing thing that ever happened to someone wanting to know more about Middle-earth and its origins.

The Silmarillion is the Middle-earth bible, and not in the sense that it's a great reference book. It's the Middle-earth bible in the sense that it starts out with the creation and shaping of the world, and moves on through the tales of the ages from there. This is not something I would recommend to a casual fan of the series unless you're really really interested in Elvin genealogy.

So here I am, now (sort-of) an adult with a deep love of all things Middle-earth. I don't really have strong feelings about that world becoming "cool." I know a lot of people hate seeing things they love get popular and bastardized by the mainstream, but that's really never mattered much to me. I'm happy that more people have been exposed to what was my introduction to the fantasy genre, but I realize most people won't take it as far as I have. That's fine. Everyone else can move on and forget about the Hobbits and Ents; I'll continue to love Tolkien's world for my own reasons.

About the picture, it kind of looks like the Fellowship, except there were nine member of the Fellowship and only four Turtles. I just tried to represent the major races matching the personalities of the Turtles as much as possible. Leonardo is men, but in his case specifically a ranger. They're from an old blood-line of the first kings and much more noble than your average Joe. Donatello is an elf (even though that kinda looks like a Gondorian pattern on his vest). I don't really have a good reason for this except that I've always liked the elves. In hindsight he should have been a wizard. Magic is as close as you can get to technology in Middle-earth without being evil. Raph is a dwarf, of course. Red beard mixed with a love of fighting and quick temper? done. Michelangelo, I feel, best represents the Hobbits. Why fight when you can eat, drink, smoke and generally enjoy life to the fullest?

Day 272: Donatello's Birthday Party

Guess what? My birthday was a few days ago. Ordinarily I don't get too excited for my birthday. I don't hate getting older--most of the time I have to do mental calculations to remember exactly how old I am--I just feel a little uncomfortable with the amount of focus people put on me all of a sudden for one day. This is not to say I haven't enjoyed my birthdays. I've had some good times, last night included. I didn't have a party; we just met some friends for dinner. I got lots of cool Spider-Man and TMNT stuff including the new IDW Volume 1 collection of the original comics autographed by Kevin Eastman!

My wife took the theme of the night in a different, but equally nerdy direction (she threw me a TMNT party a few years ago; I'll get to it in a bit). Over the last few years she's really cultivated a love for baking and decorating things and she's gotten pretty damn good. One of my other (many) loves is Tolkien's Middle Earth. I love all of it, not just Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but the entire world and all its lore.--

Before I start rambling about Middle Earth I'm going to stop here and promise to explore this in another post.

--My wife has read The Hobbit several times, just finished Lord of the Rings all the way through for the first time and we're both waaaay excited about the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit. So this year, she made me a book cake. An awesome book cake that looks like it has real pages and... just look at this thing!

It's huge and awesome and, most importantly, delicious. I chose Strawberry cake without knowing what she was making, so she put a cream cheese layer. Get it? Strawberry's and Cream Cake. As in, "Do you remember the taste of strawberry's and cream, Mr. Frodo?" There are layers of meaning to this cake (as well as just regular layers).

So anyway, I drew this picture of Donatello (me) ready to blow out his candles on his birthday. I'm going off the assumption that the Turtles aren't really brothers in the genetic sense and so they celebrate different birthdays. The others aren't screaming in horror, they're singing "Happy Birthday" to him.

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Instead of writing a big long post about my birthday this year I thought I'd share a few pictures from my TMNT birthday from a few years ago.

 My sweet Donatello cake

Ninja Turtle cupcakes made by my good friend Crystal! The TMNT heads were ring party favors.

My friend graciously let me cut the cake with the broken hilt of Narsil. 

Apparently cutting cakes with a sword is a thing I do. I cut my Spider-Man groom's cake with a samurai sword.

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Here are a few pictures my mom gave me of when I was younger. Proof that I have always loved the turtles.

Me at 5 years-old. Note my coordinated outfit.

 My 6th birthday cake.

6 year-old me at some school carnival thing.

Clearly they didn't have a Donatello cut out.

Day 268: Titanic: A Metaphor

This was my original idea for a TMNT Titanic drawing. It's a metaphor for Leonardo and Raphael's relationship throughout much of the Turtles' history, always butting heads and breaking down their teamwork. Of course in this version Raphael kills Leonardo along with around 1,500 other people, so...

It's not a perfect metaphor, but you get the idea.

I also realized that in yesterday's post I erroneously colored the stripe along the deck of the ship red when it should have been white. Please excuse this oversight. I strive for realism in my images and I should have fact checked myself before coloring.

Day 262: Leonardo Cleans

Last night my wife and I were laying in bed reading like we do every night. Well, that's not entirely true. I was reading; she was talking about how she wanted to read, but she was so tired she would probably fall asleep after two pages, but I should go get her book because she left it in the living room and she wanted to read and might not be able to get to sleep if she didn't read. **Spoiler alert** I didn't go get her book and she fell asleep two seconds after the following conversation anyway.

So I was reading a Donatello one-shot that my friend bought me at the comic shop when my wife posed a question.

Em: So Raphael is cool, but rude, right? So that's what he has going for him.

Me: Yeah, and Michelangelo is a party dude.

Em: So he's the fun one.

Me: Yes.

Em: And Leonardo... cleans?

Me: What? No, Leonardo leads; he's their leader, and Donatello does machines.

Em: Oh leads I guess that makes more sense... but that's dumb, leads doesn't even rhyme with machines. Cleans rhymes with machines.

Me: OK.

Em: So who cleans?

Me: What? No one cleans; they're turtles. Have you ever seen their lair? It's a mess!

Em: Well that should have been the first ninja lesson Splinter taught them: how to clean up after yourself.

Day 260: Leonardo As Wander

Today's picture is a reference to one of my favorite games of all time: Shadow of the Colossus. I got the ICO/Shadow of Colossus HD remake for Christmas and I finally got around to playing it. ICO was new to me and very well done, but Shadow of Colossus is beyond amazing, even now. The amount of emotion that game is able to tap into with such a simple story and very little dialog is amazing. It creates a real sense of isolation and a grandiose sense of purpose in your quest. It also made me feel very conflicted. The point of the quest is to seek out and kill 16 colossi in a forbidden valley, but with most of colossi I was sad to see them die. It's hard to put into words exactly how this game makes me feel, but it left a very strong impression the first time I played it and I highly recommend it to anyone who looks for an emotional gameplay experience.

In the picture Leonardo is the main character, Wander, from the game. He's clinging to the back of a colossus and preparing to stab its vital sign to destroy it.

I also decided to use my day off to do something I've been considering doing for a while now. I've always liked those high speed videos of people creating art pieces because it shows you how someone can make something amazing from nothing so I decided to do my own. My art style is incredibly unique and I knew that everyone was wondering how I can make such amazing drawings. Well, here you go. A few notes:

• The notebook is the same style I've used to draw 99% of my pictures.
• I always start with pen first unless it's a special drawing.
• I never start over. All mistakes have to be assimilated into the drawing.
• Most pictures take between 10 and 20 minutes to finish.
• These are new colored pencils I stole from my wife. My old set was getting pretty worn.

Day 167: Leonardo Wraps Some Presents

It's getting close to time for us to leave for our AZ Christmas vacation. I suspect I'll be doing a lot of this tonight when I get home since almost nothing is wrapped yet. Really, I don't mind. Wrapping gifts is kind of fun, I'm just not as good at it as my wife is.

Day 164: Leonardo Flips a Coin

Sometimes you just have to leave those tough decisions up to fate.

Or maybe he's training to become the new Two Face. Who can guess the mind of a Ninja Turtle? I certainly don't presume to.

Day 161: Leonardo Stabs a Dude For No Reason

I don't know, sometimes you just have to stab somebody I guess.

Day 154: Sword Stilts

Sword stilts. Cause why not? Amirght?

Day 150: Leonardo and Axe Cop Are on a Team!

*This is part 2 of 3 in my Web Comics series.

One of my favorite things on the internet are web comics. I'm a big fan of the comic medium, but I don't really read comic books regularly. It can be prohibitively expensive to keep up with them, and there are so many out there it's hard to know what to read. Most of the comics that my wife and I do read are ones that we've borrowed from friends. That's why I love web comics so much. They're free, (usually) update pretty regularly and a lot of them are as good, if not better, than most of what's in print right now.

The internet allows people to post their own material without first running it through a gauntlet of producers and editors who might change it into something they think people want. While that's not always a good thing occasionally it leaves you with something amazing that you never would have seen in a comic book store.

I really only follow four web comics regularly so I've decided to do a post about three of them (the fourth is kind of a tie-in).

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Axe Cop is, without a doubt, one of the most hilarious and unique pieces of... well, anything, that I've ever seen. If you've never heard of it the premise is simple: Comic book writer and artist Ethan Nicolle was playing with his 5 year-old brother, Malachai, and he decided to turn it into a comic strip. He posted them for his friends and family to laugh at and it became an overnight sensation. Almost two years later the web comic is still going strong and has even been given two print collections of the web material and one print-only miniseries (with another coming in the future).

I can't remember laughing as hard at almost anything as I did when I first discovered Axe Cop. These story lines are something only a child could think up and it's a lot of fun to read the comic and remember playing like this when I was little.

I've been following it online since almost the first page, but I could never get my wife to read it because she said she doesn't have time to keep up with web comics. I finally got the first web collection as a gift and she no longer had an excuse. It took her maybe a week to go through it and she literally kept me awake laughing while reading in bed.

If you haven't read any Axe Cop stores yet, do yourself a favor and just start from the beginning. They're not exactly dense content-wise, being written by a 5-6 year-old, but they will make you laugh.

I'm pretty happy with this picture. To be honest I copied the picture of Axe Cop, but I'm not a great copier so it turned out pretty good. It's in black and white because most of the Axe Cop comics are in black and white. I think Axe Cop would be on a team with all of the Turtles, but I decided just to go with Leo on this one since he's their leader.

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Ethan Nicolle has another web comic called Bearmageddon. It's a bit more adult than Axe Cop, but so far it's been really good. Basically it is what it sounds like; bears go crazy and attack people. At some point we're going to start seeing some genetically mutated bears, too, so I'm excited for that. If you don't read it already you should start now. It's just now getting to the first bear attacks so it's a perfect time to start from the beginning and catch up.

The reason I'm not doing a separate picture for Bearmageddon is because I kind of already did one when I drew Raphael fighting a bear.

Click here for my XKCD post.
Click here for my Dr. McNinja post.

Day 146: Leonardo is Part Robot

Leonardo would make a cool looking half-robot, don't you think? If I'm being honest I was kind of thinking about the brief period in Star Trek: Next Generation where Picard is assimilated into the Borg. I mean, Leo is the leader of the Turtles, so he's kinda like their captain.

Day 133: Leonardo Goes Sky Diving

Skydiving is something I used to really want to do, but as I've gotten a little bit older my desire has waned a little. I would still do it, but it's not something I would probably seek out. I think if I ever go it'll have to be for someone else's special occasion.

I was just trying to come up with something to draw and I thought about doing a skydiving picture and right at that moment I overheard someone talking about skydiving and I knew it was meant to be. So, Leonardo skydiving, pre-open parachute.

Day 128: Leonardo: Dragon Rider!

Inspiration for this one comes from a couple of different places. First, Skyrim came out yesterday. I haven't played it and I don't plan on playing it for a while, but I really want to. The big thing about that game, besides the scope, is the whole "infinite dragon" gimmick. Honestly, I don't care so much about fighting dragons forever as long as the story is good.

On top of that I'm still playing Dragon Age 2. I beat it once (came in right around 52 hours) and I loved it. I started a second playthrough as a warrior who's a little bit more to the point. Partly I'm doing a PS3 trophy clean-up run, but I'm also doing it for a different side of the story. I'm about two thirds of the way through right now I believe. It shouldn't take me nearly as long to finish my second playthrough, though. I've already read all the codex entries.

The last reason I drew this is just because dragons are awesome and who wouldn't want to ride one? This one is kind of stupid looking because I'm a terrible artist, but even so I'd ride that thing. Did you see How to Train Your Dragon? It was great and I think every little kid wishes they could tame a dragon to ride into battle on the playground. For some of us those dreams don't die with age.

Day 117: Leonardo Is Stuck

Real turtles can't turn themselves back over when they fall on their backs, can Ninja Turtles? Probably, but maybe not. That's why they shouldn't ever go out alone, especially with all of that jumping and flipping. What if they get in a jam? They need at least one of their brothers there to help them out.

Day 114: Leonardo Fights a Kracken

So we can add boats to the list of things I don't draw well. Also pirate hats. That one kinda looks like a black Mario hat. Whatever, Leonardo is about to totally murder that kracken.

Day 113: Leonardo Juggles

I don't really know where this picture came from. I was just sittin around watching Firefly (the one where Kaylee gets to wear the poofy dress and Mal takes part in a duel) and I started wondering if any of the Turtles know how to juggle. I guess since I drew Leonardo juggling the answer is yes, at least one of them can juggle.

Day 91: Leonardo Takes a Break

I'm going to give everyone (all 12 of you) a break from reading my long, rambling stories by submitting this picture without much comment. Of course this effectively gives me a break from writing long, rambling stories and that's always nice. In case you're wondering (you are, admit it) I chose Leonardo because according to my tag cloud thingy on the side bar I've used him less in his own pictures than any of the other Turtles. Enjoy your rest Leonardo. You've earned it.

Day 83: Leonardo Has the POWER!!!

Last night the wife and I had our big screen debuts! Sort of. We were really in a movie and it was really playing in a legit movie theater (an Alamo Drafthouse no less!). But to be fair it was in a fan film that was really intended to be viewed on the internet or in a home theater setting. Even so it was pretty awesome watching it with so many other people. While some of the people in attendance worked on the movie in some fashion there were quite a few people there who weren't connected with the production in any way. The Alamo staff said it was one of the biggest private release they've ever worked which is pretty awesome. What is this film I keep talking about? That would be Masters of the Universe: Wizard of Stone Mountain!

Our good friend John Carroll is the biggest Masters of the Universe fan I have ever met. I have to be honest, I never watched the show when I was little and I have very little knowledge of the universe built around these characters. When he first started talking about doing this movie I knew He-Man, Skeletor and that's about it. I still don't know much beyond that, but at least I've seen some of the other characters or heard them mentioned. So John decided to write and film a trilogy based in the Masters of the Universe universe and he asked my wife if she would be in it as Princess Adora/She-Ra. Really what that amounts to in the first film is not much more than a few seconds on screen and no lines, but it does promise some more screen time in the later films. So that's pretty awesome for my wife; she likes to act and figured this would be a good experience.

Then I got offered a part.

Let me explain something to everyone. I'm not an actor. I don't like to act, I'm no good at acting and I've never aspired to be an actor. I was not made for any sort of spotlight, even when it comes to music. As much as I enjoy it performing live was never my favorite part of being a musician. Fortune I'll take; fame I have never wanted.

My initial answer when John asked me to be in the movie was, "No. Absolutely not." Then he came back with a promise that I wouldn't have to do any acting. The role would be a bit character with no lines and I would be wearing a mask. I don't like to act, but I am a fan of costumes so I said OK as long as I didn't have to actually do any acting. Ironically once I got the costume on I wasn't able to show any emotion or even turn my head, so it wasn't so much that I refused to act, but that I physically couldn't.

I was playing a Caligar Ambassador. Translation: I was a lizard-man. John told me that he actually had a back story for my character planned out even though I wasn't going to be speaking or doing much of anything. His name was supposed to be Seratis (Ceratis?), pronounced Sarah-tiss, but everyone we were hanging out with at John's house decided we liked the name Lizardo better so I became Seratis Lizardo. I don't know what the actual back story was supposed to be, but it was determined by everyone else that I was a lizard-man that lived under a rock and enjoyed fancy dinner parties where spaghetti is served. I held onto that back story as my motivation for my scene.

The day came for my wife and I to meet the crew on location at a small church in Leander, TX (not far from our apartment, actually). We would be in the same scene so it worked out well. We spent roughly 85,000 hours waiting to be called to set in which time I did a lot of reading and some sleeping on a stage in what I assume was a reception hall for the church. Since I was wearing a mask I didn't need anything done with my hair and my makeup consisted of painting green around my eyes and black around my mouth.

In our scene we were sitting around a table presumably enjoying breakfast with the royal family. I wasn't the only freak in the scene; sitting across from me was Chief Carnivus, a lion-man with awesome makeup. I was supposed to be strictly background due to my aversion to acting and because the mask wasn't quite high quality enough to be prominently displayed in a scene. Unfortunately the room we were shooting in was pretty small and didn't allow for anyone to be in the background, so they sat me at the corner of the table as out of the way as possible.

Apparently sitting at a table with a lizard-man is pretty funny because the other actors could not keep a straight face. Everyone was making fun of my serious expression and the fact that my laughter was only evident by my shaking shoulders. They kept trying to push me further and further into the corner and out of the direct line of the camera and someone made the joke, "Nobody puts Lizardo in the corner." That was the end of shooting for about fifteen minutes while everyone doubled-over laughing and make-up had to be reapplied because of the tears of laughter. We did eventually get the shot and we were free to leave shortly afterward.

So, like I said, last night was the premiere in Austin. Technical issues aside the movie was actually very entertaining. The story was straight forward and didn't take itself too seriously, both of which seem to be common problems with films by first-time filmmakers. The costuming and visual effects were impressive especially considering the means that they were working with. The directors stated before the show that this, being their first real outing into the realm of film, was definitely a learning experience and they are now much more prepared to continue on with the final entries in the trilogy.

In case you're curious I did make it into the movie. There are a couple of moments where the camera doesn't quite hide me behind another character's head in the scene and I was even featured briefly in the outtakes. The most exciting thing about the night was first when I got to stand up with all the other actors even though I didn't really do anything in the movie, and then later when they talked about how funny that scene was and I was asked to stand up again and got my own round of applause. Nothing like getting recognized by a theater full of people for wearing a mask and sitting perfectly still.

Sadly it doesn't look like Seratis Lizardo will be making an appearance in the next two films, but I'm OK with that. I'll just sit on the sidelines and remember my glory days as the emotionless lizard-man.

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In other fan film news I keep forgetting to mention it, but the Casey Jones movie that I blogged about a while ago is now up online. You should go check it out cause it's pretty awesome.

Casey Jones the Movie

Day 77: Journey

Today I went to an awesome PlayStation party at the Highball to kick off FantasticFest. I was planning on writing a blog about the party and all the awesome games I played, but I was so impressed with one specific game that I decided to do my post about that game specifically: Journey.

Journey is the new PlayStation Network downloadable title (available sometime in the near future) by ThatGameCompany. I loved Flower, one of ThatGameCompany's pervious releases, and I'd read a few things about Journey that made me really interested to play it. Journey was the main reason I wanted to go to the PlayStation party in the first place. When I got into the Highball I found four TVs set up to demo the game. It didn't take long before one of them was available and I sat down to try it out. A woman named Robin introduced herself and talked to me for a minute about the game and the development team before she handed me the PS3 headset and controller.

I was immediately sucked into the world of Journey where you play as an armless be-scarfed character. The first thing I thought of was a Jawa because of the hooded, black face with glowing eyes, but your character is taller and infinitely more graceful than any Jawa. You move smoothly over sand that flows like water towards a mountain in the distance. Along the way you are given very little instruction on the controls and no instruction on how to accomplish your goal or even what your immediate goal is, but that's part of the charm of the game; It's all about the experience of discovering the world on your own.

Eventually you meet another person, another real person, playing the game somewhere else, but no words are ever exchanged. The only communication that occurs between you is the movement of your characters or your songs. Pressing Circle causes your character to sing a note, hold it longer for a more powerful burst of music that can activate things around the world or recharge your companion's scarf. I found myself using short songs to communicate my thanks or encouragement to the person I was playing with. I don't know why, but I got the impression that the person I was playing with was female. I wonder who they imagined they were playing with?

Over the twenty or so minutes that the demo lasted I became completely absorbed in the desert world around me. The closest experience I can relate it to is the way I felt playing Shadow of the Colossus. The open, mostly lonely world and the lack of any sort of narrative or explanation left me to fill in the blanks myself. It's an intensely personal and emotional experience, at least for me, and difficult to describe. I love the idea of a game evoking so much emotion with such a minimal amount of guidance. It's a bit like listening to an instrumental piece of music. It can make you feel a certain way without lyrics to describe what the song is about. To me Journey evoked feelings of sadness, but also hope in the accomplishments of myself and my nameless companion. I know I had a big stupid grin on my face while playing the demo, but as it ended I found myself a little misty eyed over the experience.

I love video games and a good story is always important. I love the Uncharted series, Dragon Age and inFamous because of the acting and story lines, but it's games like Journey that I can totally immerse myself in. Even just playing the demo I instantly forgot about everything that I had been stressed about during the day and just enjoyed the experience. It's hard to overstate how excited I am for this game to come out so I can delve back into the mysterious landscape and meet another nameless adventurer.

Day 69: Strutting Leonardo (TMNT meme # 2)

Next up in my meme-themed parade is Strutting Leo. This one should be pretty self-explanatory.

Click here for meme #1